Tuesday, 31 January 2017

He was born in Brisk (Brest),
Lithuania. He studied in religious
elementary schools, with private tutors, and at the Mishmar Bet Hamidrash
(Guardian of the Temple), under the chief supervision of Rabbi Chaim
Soloveitchik, while at the same time he was studying Tanakh and Hebrew with a
private tutor—he began writing in Hebrew, and his first correspondence pieces were
at age twelve in Hatsofe (The spectator)
in Warsaw (1904). At age sixteen he
turned his attention to secular subject matter and foreign languages. He graduated in 1914 from the Brisk
commercial school. He went to study at
the polytechnical school in Ekaterinoslav (1916), the Moscow commercial
institute (1917-1919), and the University of Berlin (1924-1925). Over the years 1910-1911, he started to
become active in working for the illegal organization of the Bund in Brisk. He contributed to the pro-Bundist, Russian
language Nash krai (Our part) in
1912-1913. In 1915 he served as night
editor in Vitebsk for the Russian daily newspaper Vitebskaia gazeta kopeika (Vitebsk gazette for a kopeck), for which
he wrote on literature and theater under the pen name Yitskhaki. In 1917 he took an active role in the
revolutionary work of the Moscow-region committee of the Bund and the general
social democratic (Menshevik) campaigning circle in Moscow. He gave speeches in public (in both Russian
and Yiddish) in Moscow and other cities of central Russia. In August 1917 he was summoned by the central
committee of the Bund to Minsk to work for the daily organ of the party, Der veker (The alarm). He returned to Moscow, co-edited the
collection Tsun ondenk fun karl marks
(To the memory of Karl Marx) (Moscow, 1918, 115 pp.—again using the pen name
Yitskhaki), wrote for Di tsukunft
(The future) in Moscow (1918), translated (from German and Russian) work by
Kautsky, Plekhanov, and others for a socialist publishing house. He was secretary of the instructors’
committee for trade union statistics at the All-Russian Council of Trade
Unions. In 1919 he moved to Minsk and
served as secretary of the instructors’ committee of the “Association of
Workers’ Cooperatives of the Western District” (centered in Smolensk). He wrote for Veker (March 1919), and he was a delegate to the eleventh
conference of the Bund in Minsk. Under
occupation by the Polish army in 1920, he moved to Vilna, worked as an
instructor in the credit cooperative for Yekopo (Yevreyskiy komitet pomoshchi zhertvam voyny—“Jewish Relief Committee for War Victims”),
and wrote for the journal Unzer hilf
(Our relief), edited by M. Shalit, in which among other items he published
(November 1921) a long piece on the “cooperative movement among Jews in Vilna and
environs” (which also appeared later in an offprint version). After the split in the Vilna Bundist
organization, he was a cofounder of the social-democratic Bund and co-editor of
its newspaper organs: Dos fraye vort
(The free word) (1921); Unzer tsayt
(Our time) (1922); and Unzer gedank
(Our idea) (1922-1923). In Berlin
(1923-1925), he wrote (using the pen name Y. Borukhov) in the Russian Menshevik
journal Sotsialisticheskii vestnik
(Socialist herald). He corresponded
(under the pen name Ben-Borekh) for the Forverts
(Forward) in New York, also wrote for the Warsaw-based Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper), and translated from German and
Russian into Yiddish for a number of presses—among other items, he translated
(as Ben-Borekh) B. Aronson’s book on Marc Chagall (Berlin: Yidisher
literarisher farlag, Petropolis, 1924).
In August 1925, he moved to Riga, Latvia, as an internal editor joined the
staff of the daily Dos folk (The
people)—the political editor of the newspaper was the well-known Bundist leader
Sergei Braun—experienced the strike and the intervention of the contributors at
the newspaper; and because of the political instability of the publishers, he
published the sole edition to appear of Unzer
folk (Our people), assisted in the founding of the major Yiddish daily Frimorgn (Morning), put together the
program for its direction to head, was the style editor of the newspaper until
the arrival of Sh. Y. Stupnitski, and soon left the newspaper over differences
of political opinion. In 1926 he became
a lecturer on Yiddish literature in the pedagogical course of the Yiddish
department at the general education ministry and a teacher of Yiddish and
Yiddish literature at the city’s Jewish high school. Over the years 1929-1930, he lectured on
Yiddish literature at the Jewish teachers’ course at Dorpat (Tartu) University
in Estonia. He wrote journalistic
pieces, features, and literary essays for the Riga publications of the Bund and
for the Latvian school organization, for the literary weekly journal Di vokh (The week) (1927-1928), and for
the monthly of the school organization Naye
vegn (New ways) (1927-1929). He
edited the Bundist weekly newspaper Naye
tsayt (New times) (1937-1938), as well as a Russian-language publication of
the Latvian trade unions. Together with
Yudl Mark, he published—in brochure format—subject program for Yiddish and
Yiddish literature for a teachers’ course of study (Riga, 1928), 32 pp. All these years he was a member of the
central bureau of the Bund in Latvia. At
the time of the semi-fascist coup of Kārlis Ulmanis in 1934, he was
arrested, and after being freed from Riga’s central prison, departed for
Poland; in May 1935 he left for South Africa on assignment for the Vilna “Tsebek” (Tsentraler bildungs komitet, or Central
educational committee) and Tsisho (Central Jewish School
Organization). After completing his
school business, he remained in Johannesburg, aided with directing the work of
the Jewish cultural association, founded a Yiddish public school with a high
school attached, administered the Humanities College (a school of humanities
fields for adults), and edited the monthly Foroys
(Onward) from June 1937 until January 1940.
Over the years 1941-1946, he contributed to the weekly newspaper Afrikaner idishe tsaytung (African
Jewish newspaper), in which aside from other items he wrote (using the pen name
“Observator”) a weekly report on international politics. In the summer of 1948 he moved to New
York. In 1949 he became a teacher of
Yiddish and lecturer on Jewish and general European literature at the Jewish
teachers’ seminary and People’s University in New York. He made a lecture tour through the United
States, Canada, and South America. In
New York, he wrote for: Forverts, Der veker, the monthly Gerekhtikeyt (Justice) mostly using the
pen name Y. Borukhov, Tsukunft
(Future), Kultur un dertsiung
(Culture and education), the Bundist monthly Unzer tsayt (a standing contributor, also using the pen name Y.
Borukhov); the anthology Vitebsk amol
(Vitebsk in the past) (1956); an essay on Mikhl Gordon in Shmuel niger bukh (Volume for Shmuel Niger) (1958), which also
appeared in a separate offprint (14 pp.); and Doyres bundistn (Generations of Bundists) (New York, 1956). He published a great number of literary
critical essays and treatments of dozens of Jewish and non-Jewish writers. He was a co-editor of the Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur
(Biographical dictionary of modern Yiddish literature), for which he wrote a
considerable number of entries. He died
in New York. The original spelling of
his name was: חרל״ש, the initial letters of “Khosn Rabbi Leyb
Shamesh.”

He was born in Zembin, Borisov
district, Byelorussia. He was the son of
a cobbler and the grandson (on his mother’s side) of the well-known Zembin’s
wedding entertainer Leyzer Sheynman.
Until age twelve he studied in religious primary school and a Russian
public school in Zembin; he later worked in Minsk, Borisov, Homel, and Vitebsk,
was an unskilled laborer in a bakery and an assistant to a druggist. From 1917 until 1919, he was the administrator
of a school, a leader in a trade union, and a librarian in Minsk. In 1919 he became a Communist, volunteered to
join the Red Army, and took part in battles against the White Guard in
Byelorussia and against the Poles. He
began writing poetry in those years, but due to his reticence he sent them
nowhere to be published. By chance two
of his poems reached Shmuel Agurski who was then editor of the Moscow-based,
Yiddish-language, Bolshevik newspaper Di
komunistishe velt (The Communist world), and he published these two
poems—“Mir un zey” (Us and them) and “In shturm” (In the storm)—under the name
A. Z. Zembin in issue 14-15 (April 1920).
From that point he published his poetry, both originals and translations
from Russian poetry, in: Di komunistishe
velt, Der emes (The truth), Nayerd (New earth), Yungvald (Young forest), Pyoner
(Pioneer), and Sovetishe literatur
(Soviet literature) in Yiddish, and Krasnaia
Nov (Red soil), Tribuna
(Tribune), Pravda (Truth), and Ogonyok (Light) in Russian—all in
Moscow; Oktyabr (October), Yunger leninyets (Young Leninist), Yunger pyoner (Young pioneer), Atake (Attack), Shtrom (Current), Shtern
(Star), Ruf (Call), Tsaytshrift (Periodical) in which he
published in its very first number (1925) a piece about his grandfather, Leyzer
Sheynman, the popular wedding entertainer from Zembin, and Sovetishe vaysrusland (Soviet Byelorussia)—in Minsk; Farmest (Challenge), Shtern, and Di royte velt (The red world)—in Kharkov; Prolit (Proletarian literature) and Afn shprakh-front (On the language front), among others, in Kiev; Khvalyes (Waves) in Vitebsk; and Der odeser arbeter (The Odessa worker)
in Odessa; among others. Abroad he
contributed work to: Der hamer (The
hammer), Morgn-frayhayt (Morning
freedom), Signal (Signal), Yung kuzhnye (Young smithy), Yugnt (Youth), Studyo (Studio), Ikor (Yidishe kolonizatsye organizatsye in rusland [Jewish
colonization organization in Russia]), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and Zamlungen (Collections)—in New York; Kultur (Culture) in Chicago; Literarishe
bleter (literary leaves), Arbeter-tsaytung
(Workers’ newspaper), Fraye yugnt
(Free youth), Yidishe shriftn
(Yiddish writings), and Folksshtime
(Voice of the people) in Warsaw; Literarishe
tribune (Literary tribune) and Parizer
tsaytshrift (Parisian periodical) in Paris; Erd un arbet (Land and labor) in Kishinev; Di prese (The press) and Idishe
tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires. He spent the years 1919-1921 studying at the
Briusov Institute for Literature and Art in Moscow. Until 1922 he was one of the directors of the
People’s Commissariat for Education in Byelorussia, and later, with
interruptions, he lived in Moscow where he graduated from a higher literary
school in 1924. From 1928 to the summer
of 1937, he lived in Minsk, where he graduated from the philological institute
and took up leading positions in the general and Jewish life of Byelorussia. He was a member of the presidium of the
central executive committee of the Byelorussian Community Party, a member of
the Byelorussian government, of the Byelorussian scientific academy, and of the
main administrations of school and cultural activities, as well as a member of
the central executive of the Byelorussian Republic. He was also a delegate and one of the main
speakers at the All-Soviet Writers’ Conference.
Kharik distinguished himself in Yiddish literature in Soviet Russia as
the poet of “Minsker blotes” (Minsk mud).
He was one of those who laid the groundwork for Soviet Jewish
literature, especially in Byelorussia.

He published in book form: Tsiter (Shiver), poems from his early
period (Minsk, 1922), 64 pp.; Af der erd
(On the ground), including as well his poem about the Civil War in Byelorussia,
“Minsker blotes” (Moscow, 1926), 112 pp.; Mit layb un lebn (Body and soul), poem about the heroic work of young
Soviet teachers in rebuilding Jewish towns (Minsk, 1928), 79 pp.; Lider un poemes (Poetry) (Kiev, 1930),
206 pp., second printing (Minsk, 1930); Broyt
(Bread), a poem (Minsk, 1930), 16 pp.; Kaylekhdike
vokhn (Circular weeks), poem concerning social reconstruction in
Byelorussia (Minsk, 1932), 157 pp., newer edition (Moscow, 1935), also
appearing in an abbreviated form for the Jewish school (Minsk, 1933), 50 pp.; Fun polyus tsu polyus (From pole to
pole), youth and children’s poetry (Minsk, 1934), 61 pp., which won an award in
the All-Russian Competition for Youth Literature in Moscow, 1934; Undzer munterkeyt, lider un poemes (Our
cheerfulness, poetry) (Kiev, 1935), 130 pp., second edition (Moscow, 1936); Finf poemes (Five poems) (Minsk, 1936),
260 pp.; Af a fremder khasene (At a
strange wedding) (Minsk, 1936), 117 pp., in which he depicts in a nostalgic
tenor the life of his grandfather, the old Zembin wedding entertainer, who devoted
his career to strangers’ weddings. He
was editor of the monthly Der shtern
(The star) in Minsk; he coedited: Atake in Minsk (1934); Pyonerishe lider (Pioneering poetry) in
Minsk (1934); and the literary almanac Sovetishe
vaysrusland (Soviet Byelorussia) in Minsk (1935). His work was also represented in: Birebidzhan(Birobidzhan), anthology (Moscow, 1936); Shlakhtn, fuftsn yor oktyaber in der kinstlerisher
literatur (Battles, fifteen years
of October in artistic literature), compiled together with H. Orland and B.
Kahan (Kharkov-Kiev, 1932); Af
barikadn,revolyutsyonere shlakhtn in der opshpiglung fun der
kinstlerisher literatur (At the barricades,
revolutionary battles in the lens of artistic literature) (Kharkov, 1930); Far der bine: dertseylungen, pyeses, lider (For the stage: stories, plays, poems), with
musical notation (together with Y. Dobrushin and E. Gordon) (Moscow, 1929); Der arbeter in der yidisher literatur,
fargesene lider (The worker in Yiddish literature, forgotten poems)
(Moscow, 1939); Deklamater fun der sovetisher yidisher literatur (Reciter of Soviet Yiddish
literature) (Moscow, 1934). He
compiled: the poetry collection Ruf
in Minsk (1935), with Yasha Bronshteyn; a play based on Sholem-Aleykhem’s A yontef in kasrilovke (A holiday in
Kasrilovke), with Y. Dobrushin, staged at the Moscow Yiddish state theater with
Kharik’s poetry in the text. Among other
items, he translated into Yiddish the poem Di
kretshme (The tavern) by Moris Tsharat.
In 1936 there was published in Minsk: Izi kharik, tsu zayn 15-yorikn dikhterishn veg (Izi Kharik, for his
fifteen-year poetic path), 136 pp., with appreciations and critical articles by
Sh. Ogurski, A. Osherovitsh, M. Litvakov, Y. Bronshteyn, M. Viner, A. Khashin,
Uri Finkl, L. Tsart, and Y. Serebryani.
In June 1937 Kharik was arrested in Minsk and dragged through a number
of Russian prisons, where they ferociously tortured him. He went insane and was brought in September
to the labor camp at Sukhobenzvodny in northern Russia. On October 28, 1937 he was brought to court
for a trial that last fifteen minutes.
He was sentenced the next morning and shot that same day—and that same
day, Moyshe Kulbak, Yashe Bronshteyn, and Khatskl Dunets were also shot.

“His was a profoundly ethnic form,
as he drew his poetic nourishment from popular Jewish sources,” wrote M.
Litvakov. “His landscape,” noted L.
Tsart, “was Byelorussian Jewish folklore.”
“He was the heart of the company of Yiddish writers in Byelorussia,”
wrote Uri Finkl, “…while his Af a fremder
khasene is rife with an artistic sense of completion and his figure of the
wedding entertainer is a protesting lamedvovnik, through whom the simple man of
the people speaks.” Kharik was one of
the Soviet Yiddish writers who were murdered by the brutal sword of Stalin and
who would not be rehabilitated for many years.
In the new edition of the Great
Soviet Encyclopedia (1957), it simply states that he “died in 1937,” and in
the literary biographical dictionary of Soviet writers from Byelorussia (Minsk
1957), it states: “He died somewhere in 1937.”
It would be some time before his poems appeared again in the Soviet
Union. His poems in Byelorussian (Minsk,
1958) and in Russian—with an introduction by A. Vergelis (Moscow, 1958)—were
all that appeared. Of his literary heritage,
a few poems have been preserved, and they were published in Folksshtime in Warsaw (April 13, 1957)
and in Parizer tsaytshrift 15 (1957).

Although he has never been fully
rehabiltitated, things began to change slowly in the early 1960s with the
following publications: Dovid hofshteyn,
izi kharik, itsik fefer, oysgeklibene shriftn (Dovid Hofshteyn, Izi Kharik,
Itsik Fefer, selected writings), ed. Shmuel Rozhanski (Buenos Aires: Lifshits
Fund, 1962); and Mit layb un lebn
(Moscow: Sovetski pisatel, 1970), 286 pp.
Several volumes of his work in Russian and Byelorussian also appeared in
print.

Sunday, 29 January 2017

He was born in Braslav (Brasław),
Ukraine. He studied in religious primary
school, synagogue study hall, and in a Russian public school. He later became a carpenter. In 1908 he moved to Argentina. He was among the active fighters for secluding
the ritually impure from Jewish life. He
was a cofounder of the first burial society and author of its statutes, from
which later developed the democratic Jewish community in Argentina. He published correspondence pieces and seasonal
articles about Jewish community life in Di
idishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper) and Di prese (The press), among others, in Buenos Aires. He served as editor of the humorous monthly Der kantshik (The whip) in Buenos Aires
(1942-1952). He died in Buenos Aires.

He was born in Vishnyevits,
Volhynia. In 1932 he emigrated to Argentina. In 1955 he debuted in print with a story in Ilustrirte literarishe bleter (Illustrated
literary news) in Buenos Aires. In book
form: Tvishn tsvey emesn, dertseylungen,
minyaturn, lider, poemes, film-stsenar (Between two truths, stories,
miniatures, song, poems, film script) (Buenos Aires, 1971), 176 pp.

He was born in the village of Shuri,
Bessarabia, and grew up in the Jewish colony of Markulesh (Mărculești),
near Belz, in Bessarabia. In 1934 he
moved to Czernowitz, where he worked in a variety of trades, while at the same
time continuing his education. There he
graduated from a teachers’ seminary for Yiddish literature and
linguistics. At the start of the Nazi
occupation (July 1941), he fled to Central Asia, and from there at the end of
1945 he traveled to Moscow. He spent the
years 1946-1948 back in Czernowitz, and then together with other Jewish writers
was arrested by the Soviet authorities and was sent to a Soviet camp in the
Gulag from 1949 through 1955, after Stalin’s death, when he returned once more
to Czernowitz and began an intensive period of composing poetry and writing
literary critical essays. From 1972 he
was living in Jerusalem. He began
writing poetry in his school years, although he debuted in print in 1934 in
Yiddish periodicals in Bessarabia. His
poems, “Don kishot” (Don Quixote) and “A yidene afn osyen-mark” (A Jewess at the
autumn market), which he published in Tshernovitser
bleter (Czernowitz leaves) in 1935, made an impression for their quiet tone
and authentic sadness, and they afforded him a place of honor among the young
group of Moldovan Jewish writers (Motl Saktsyer, Yankl Yakir, Herts Rivkin, and
others). From that point in time he
published poems in: Shoybn (Glass
panes) in Bucharest; Literarishe bleter
(Literary leaves), Naye folkstsaytung
(New people’s newspaper), and Foroys (Onward)
in Warsaw; and other literary journals in Romania, Poland, and the United
States. From 1940 he contributed poetry
and reportage pieces to: Eynikeyt
(Unity) and the almanac Heymland
(Homeland) in Moscow; Shtern (Star)
in Kiev; Birobidzhaner shtern
(Birobidzhan star); Yidishe shriftn (Yiddish
writings) and Folksshtime (Voice of
the people) in Warsaw; Yidishe kultur
(Jewish culture) in New York; Parizer
shriftn (Parisian writings); and other serials. Later an agitation along the old Soviet lines
was directed at him. In the Ukrainian-language
newspaper in Czernowitz, Radianska Bukovina
(Red Bukovina) of March 3, 1961, there was an article written by the Soviet
Jewish writers H. Bloshteyn and Kh. Melamud accusing Kharats of “bourgeois
nationalism” which they detected in his poems “Der vanderer” (The wanderer),
published in Yidishe shriftn
(December 1960), and “Friling” (Spring) and “Leyendik sholem-aleykhem” (Reading
Sholem-Aleykhem), published in Folksshtime
(April 1957 and February 1959). The
poets sings in these works about the old Jewish religious texts which he took
out of a book chest, about the joy of reading Sholem-Aleykhem in our soft language;
about his wish that his spring song in Yiddish might also be sung by children with
all the hundreds of songs in other languages.
He published numerous poems in Sovetish
heymland (Soviet homeland) (1961-1970).
He wrote for numerous Yiddish publications in Israel, as well as in: Tsukunft (Future) and Afn shvel (At the threshold) in New
York; Kheshbn (Accounting) in Los
Angeles; and others. From 1973 he edited
(with Y. Kerler) Yisroel-almanakh
(Israel almanac). His published books
would include: In fremdn gan-eyden
(In a foreign Garden of Eden) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1974), 335 pp.; Himl un erd, lider (Heaven and earth,
poetry) (Jerusalem, 1974), 283 pp.; Lider
tsu eygene (Poems for myself) (Tel Aviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1975), 212 pp.; Shtern afn himl (Stars in the sky(Jerusalem, 1977), 239 pp.; Dos finfte rod, lider (The fifth wheel,
poetry) (Jerusalem, 1978), 192 pp.; Griner
vinter, lider;Markulesht (Green
winter, poetry; Mărculești, poem) (Jerusalem, 1982), 263 pp.
which includes Griner vinter on pp.
227-63; Geklibene lider un getseylte
poemes (Selected and numbered poems) (Jerusalem, 1983), 474 pp.; Nokhn sakhakl (After a summing up), vol.
1 (Jerusalem, 1987), 159 pp., vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 1990), 127 pp., vol. 3
(Jerusalem, 1992), 256 pp., vol. 4 (Jerusalem, 1993), 272 pp.; Anfas un profil un hinter di pleytses (Full
face and profile and behind the back) (Tel Aviv, 1994). In 1975 he received the Artur Award and in
1976 the Fikhman Prize.

Saturday, 28 January 2017

She was born in Okhrimov, Kiev
district, Ukraine, into the home of her grandfather, the wealthy timber
merchant Rifoel Bergelson. She was the
niece of the writer Dovid Bergelson. In
her home Yiddish literature was a familiar item, and she recalled that people
read Sholem-Aleykhem stories and that her uncle read Y. L. Perets’s stories
aloud. At age fourteen she was taken to
Kiev, where she completed high school and went on to study natural science at
university. In 1919 she was enrolled in
a higher pedagogical institution. From
1920 she was working in a variety of children’s institutions. In 1928 she was a teacher in a school in
Podol (Podil), a suburb of Kiev. She
published poems in: the third issue of the monthly Shtros (Tide) in Moscow (1922); later, in Komunistishe fon (Communist banner) in Kiev (1923); Royte velt (Red world) in Kharkov; the almanac
Ukraine (Ukraine) in Kiev (1926); the
anthology Barg-aruf (Uphill) in Kiev
(1927); and others. Her first book
appeared in 1928: Lider (Poetry)
(Kharkov: Gezkult), 65 pp., and that same year her poems appeared in Ezra
Korman’s anthology, Yidishe dikhterins
(Jewish women poets) (Chicago). She was
especially successful with her booklets of children’s poetry. Many of her Yiddish children’s poems were
translated into Russian. Her subsequent
books include: Undzere shkheynim (Our
neighbors), poems for children (Moscow: Emes, 1934), 16 pp.; Friling (Spring), for children (Moscow:
Emes, 1935), 15 pp.; Gortnvarg
(Vegetables) (Moscow: Emes, 1936), 13 pp.; Der
komer (The mosquito) (Moscow: Emes, 1937), 14 pp.; Di bin un der hon (The bee and the rooster), poetry (Moscow: Emes,
1937), 16 pp.; Harbst (Autumn),
children’s poetry (Moscow: Emes, 1938), 12 pp.; Aeroplaner (Airplanes), poems (Moscow: Emes, 1938), 11 pp.; Yolke (Little fir tree), a poem (Moscow:
Emes, 1938), 14 pp.; Avtomobil
(Automobile), poems (Moscow: Emes, 1939), 14 pp.; In kinder-kolonye (In the children’s colony) (Moscow: Emes, 1939),
15 pp.; In vald (In the woods)
(Moscow: Emes, 1940), 11 pp. Her work
was also represented in Lomir zingen
(Let’s sing) (Moscow, 1940). She
succeeded in surviving the liquidation of the Yiddish writers in the Stalin
years; her name was among the signatures among the surviving writers in
greetings on the occasion of the eightieth birthday of Z. Vendrof in 1956. She was among the contributors to Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland) in
Moscow (July-October 1961), and a poetry cycle of hers appeared in Horizontn (Horizons) in Moscow in 1965. She died in Kiev.

Friday, 27 January 2017

She was born in Kovno, Lithuania,
where she graduated from high school and went on to study history in the
Bestuzhev Women’s Courses in St. Petersburg.
After completing these courses, she lived abroad for a time, took an
active part in the Jewish labor movement, returned to Russia and worked
illegally (using the name Rokhl) for the Bund, was a member of the Bundist committee
in Kovno (1904), contributed to the illegal transport of literature from
abroad, and worked for the Bund in Vilna, Odessa, and other cities in the Pale
of Settlement. She was arrested by the
Tsarist authorities. After the failed
Russian Revolution of 1905, she completely dedicated herself to educational
activities. She worked as a teacher of
history in Sofia Gurevich’s high school and in the Russian Jewish public
schools of Vilna. She developed a
considerable area of activity in the realm of public education under the German
occupation during WWI (1916-1918), and she was one of the most important
builders of the Jewish school system, from which later developed the modern
Jewish secular school curriculum in Lithuania, Poland, and elsewhere in Eastern
Europe. A gifted speaker, she gave
lectures in the “pedagogical course of the Vilna Yiddishist faculty” at the
evening classes for adults, in children’s auditoriums, as well as at public
cultural undertakings. For a time she
administered the women’s school of the “Society for Child Welfare in
Vilna.” Over the years 1918-1920, she
lived in Moscow, where she studied methods for use in what was termed at the
time the “Labor School.” She then
returned to Kovno, where until 1940 she played a leading role in the Jewish
school and cultural movement in Lithuania, was a teacher in a Yiddish middle
school in Kovno and other Yiddish schools in Lithuania, and at the same time
was one of the principal leaders in the leftwing-oriented “Kultur-lige”
(Culture League), as well as in the Jewish Communist movement in Kovno. When the Kultur-lige closed (1925), she was
arrested for a time and after being freed, she founded (with Dr. Shmuel Levin)
a secret order to support a secular Jewish school curriculum via the “Society
to Support the Physical and Mental Well-being of the Jewish Child,” which was
the legal name of a segment of the activities of the Jewish Communists in
Lithuania. Over the course of many
years, she traveled around the world and, in addition to Western Europe, also
visited Israel (1929) and Romania (1934).
When the Soviets occupied Lithuania in 1940, Khatskels left for Moscow—in
connection with efforts to renew the Yiddish school curriculum in Lithuania—but
after the German attack on Russia, she was unable to return and was thus evacuated
to Central Asia, where she lived until the end of 1944. At the start of 1945, she returned to Kovno
and was the renovator, builder, and teacher in the only Jewish public school
that existed in the Jewish children’s home (in 1948 it was dissolved by the Soviets). In connection with her fifty years of work in
pedagogy, in 1947 she was honored by the Soviet regime with the title “meritorious
teacher” and with the “Order of Lenin.”

He was born in Kelm (Kelmė),
Lithuania. He was the son of the
Shchuchiner rebbe. He studied in
religious elementary school and yeshiva, and he acquired secular subjects on
his own. For a time he studied natural
science and philosophy at Yur’yev (Dorpat) University. Until 1935 he was a lecturer in journalism at
the Kovno public university, before he later settled in Israel. He wrote articles for Di idishe shtime (The Jewish voice) in Kovno (he was also its
editorial secretary) and later Israeli correspondent for the newspaper; for
many years he was correspondent from Lithuania for Forverts Forward) and Tog
(Day) in New York and for Haarets
(The land) in Tel Aviv, where he would later be a member of the editorial
board. He became a contributor and from
1955 editorial secretary of Hatsofe
(The spectator) in Tel Aviv. He published
editorial articles, feature pieces, critical bibliographical essays, and translations. He was the principal contributor to the
periodical Velt-shpigl (World mirror)
in Kovno (1927-1928). He edited the
Mizrachi weekly newspaper Dos idishe vort
(The Jewish word) in Kovno (1931-1935).
He co-edited the publication Yahadut
lita (Jews of Lithuania) (Jerusalem, 1958/1959), 256 pp.

He was born in Mezhibizh,
Podolia. He was a choirboy under his father,
the cantor in Mezhibizh, and later he became a Hebrew teacher. He published children’s poetry in Bostomski’s
Grininke boymelekh (Little green
trees) in Vilna. In the 1920s he
emigrated to Brazil, became a teacher in the Hebrew Brazilian high school in
Rio de Janeiro. For many years he served
as secretary of the editorial board of Idishe
folkstsaytung (Jewish people’s newspaper) in Rio and published his poetry
there. He also translated Portuguese
poetry into Yiddish. For a time he
worked as a teacher in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he won a great payoff in
the lottery, returned to Rio, took up business, and became a wealthy man. In 1955 he was a member of the editorial
group responsible for the anthology Undzer
baytrog (Our contribution), which appeared (with five children’s poems by Khasin
included) after his sudden passing from a heart attack.

He was born in Kholopenitsh
(Kholopenichi), Minsk district, Byelorussia.
Until age eleven he studied in religious elementary school and for
secular subject matter with the town teacher from a state school; later, his
parents sent him to Borisov to study at a Talmud Torah. In 1898 he became an apprentice to a tailor
for women’s clothing, and later he went on to apprentice with a furrier. In 1900 he moved to Orshe (Orshi), and there
he worked in the furrier business and joined the Bund. After a strike of Orshe furriers that was won
in 1901, he moved on to Minsk and from there to Borisov, where he played an
important role in the revival of the Bundist movement after a lost strike in
the local match factory. He was arrested
and, after a year in prison in Borisov, he was sent to his parents in Krupke
(Krupka) and placed under the supervision of the local police. In 1904 he left for Kiev, from whence the
Bundist leader Isay Yudin-Ayzenshtadt sent him to Ekaterinoslav on Bundist
work. After returning to Minsk, he
worked in a tobacco factory, was known and beloved as a mass orator, and became
a member of the “central organization” of the Bund, contributing to armed
actions and attempted assassinations by the Minsk fighting division (among
others, against Minsk Governor Krilov on June 28, 1905); he was also active in Smilevitsh
(Smilavichy), Pukhovitsh (Pukhovichi), Smolevitsh (Smolevichi), Ihumen
(Igumen), and Berezin (Berezina). (In
Igumen he became acquainted at the time with the young Leyvik Halpern [H.
Leivik], who was then active in the Bund.)
He was involved in the attempted assassination of August 2, 1905 against
the soldiers in Borisov. Using the party
name Samuil, he took part in Lublin in seizing a print shop so as to publish
revolutionary proclamations. He was
later active in Warsaw, organizing the “gegrivete” cobblers (who used the
shoemaker’s iron last and pins), and he was again arrested and taken from the
Warsaw Citadel to prison in Lublin.
There he participated in a bitter hunger strike of the political prisoners,
and during the disturbances in the cells, when the soldiers pointed their
rifles and set to fire on the rebellious inmates, Khanin in a dramatic speech
influenced the troops, and they did not fire their guns. As a result Khanin received a severe
punishment: he was deprived of all rights and sentenced to perpetual exile in
Siberia. A military court at the Warsaw
Citadel added four years of penal servitude, and shackled in chains he was
taken to a prison for convict labor in Oriol.
After spending two years there, he was transferred to the convict prison
in Aleksandrovsk, Siberia. After the
four years of penal servitude, Khanin was sent to “perpetual” exile in the
village of Nizhny-Ilimsk, Yakutsk district, Siberia. From there he was able to keep in contact
with his brothers and sister, as well as with comrades in the United States,
and their assistance enabled him to successfully escape from Siberia. After a long period of illegal wandering
through Russia, “Nokhum the furrier” arrived in New York in September of
1912. In New York he worked in a
sweatshop in his trade and was a member of the cap-makers’ union. During WWI he was active in People’s Relief,
stood with the pacifists in connection with the war, and was active in the Jewish
Socialist Federation. With the split between
the American Socialist Party and the Jewish Socialist Federation in 1921,
Khanin stood with the opponents of the Comintern and together with the
splintered minority proclaimed the founding of the Jewish Socialist Farband
(Union) of the Socialist Party in America.
He became general secretary of the Socialist Farband, remaining in this
position for fifteen years, and over the course of this time he traveled
through the Jewish communities of America and tilled the earth on behalf of the
socialist movement. He strengthened the
Workmen’s Circle, which in the 1920s was in danger of being taken over by
Communist ideology, and he organized the anti-Communist opposition, initially
in the Cap and Millinery Union, of which he was vice-president, and later in
the Cloakmakers’ Union, furriers, the housepainters, the leather haberdashers,
and other unions. In 1928 he was a
delegate to the International Socialist Congress in Brussels, Belgium. He was also actively involved in the founding
of the first Jewish socialist school in the then heavily Jewish residential
area in New York of Harlem, and at the conference of the Workmen’s Circle and
the Socialist Federation, he led a fierce fight with the opponents of Yiddish
and Yiddish education; from 1936 (until 1952) he served as the educational
director of the Workmen’s Circle. Under
Khanin’s influence the Forverts
(Forward) chose to support the Yiddish school and instituted the weekly rubric:
“Kultur un shul-tetikeyt in arbeter-ring” (Culture and school activities in the
Workmen’s Circle).

Khanin published his first
correspondence piece in Folkstsaytung
(People newspaper) in Vilna (November 15, 1906), which he signed “N.” With the emergence of the weekly of the
Jewish Socialist Farband, Der veker
(The alarm), in New York (1921), Khanin wrote on a variety of political and
cultural-community issues, and over the course of several decades, he published
there his permanent series: “A brivele tsu a fraynd” (A short letter to a
friend). He also often wrote for the Forverts and for Fraynd (Friend), the monthly organ of the Workmen’s Circle. In addition, he placed work in the monthly
journal Unzer shul (Our school),
published by the national education committee of the Workmen’s Circle
(9131-1937); later, this journal was transformed into Kultur un dertsiung (Culture and education), of which Khanin was
editor and ran the column entitled “Fun mayn shraybtish” (From my writing
table). He also had pieces appear in Tsukunft (Future) and other publications
in New York. He was as well a member of
the editorial board of Kinder-tsaytung
(Children’s newspaper), where he often published his beloved “Brivele tsu a
kind” (Short letter to a child) which he signed “Feter nokhum” (Uncle
Nokhum). In book form he published: Sovyet-rusland, vi ikh hob ir gezen
(Soviet Russia, as I see it) (New York: Veker, 1929), 254 pp.; A rayze iber tsentral un dorem-amerike
(A voyage through Central and South America), descriptions of Jewish life in
Santo Domingo, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay (New York: Workmen’s Circle,
1942), 284 pp.; Berele (Berele), “a
story of a poor boy who grows up to be a fighter,” with drawings by Note
Kozlovski (New York: Kinder ring, 1938), 128 pp., also published in a Hebrew
translation by Shlomo Shenhod in Tel Aviv.
When the Forward Association discontinued Tsukunft, Khanin took the initiative to strengthen the journal
which would continue to be published by the World Jewish Culture
Congress—linked to Tsiko (Tsentrale yidishe
kultur-organizatsye, or Central YiddishCultural Organization), of which he was one
of the founders and then chairman; he was also chair of the Tsukunft management. He also did a great deal so that new volumes
on “Jews” in the Algemeyne entsiklopedye
(General encyclopedia) would appear in America in Yiddish. Through the Jewish Labor Committee of which
he was one of the founders and for many years was one of the administrators, as
well as through the Workmen’s Circle and other organizations, he did a great
deal to save the writers and communities leaders from the perils of Hitler in
Europe at the time of WWII. On the
occasion of his sixtieth birthday, there appeared in New York a collection
entitled N. khanin, “published by the
N. Khanin Jubilee Committee” (1946), 434 pp., with the participation of the
most important Jewish writers, labor leaders, and cultural activists. Shortly after the war and the Holocaust of
European Jewry, Khanin made a trip to Western Europe and brought material
support from American organized labor to the relief organizations in
Europe. In Paris he, together with local
community and labor leaders, helped to settle the remaining Holocaust orphans
among the survivors. In 1951 he made his
first trip to the state of Israel. He
was selected to be secretary general in 1952 of the Workmen’s Circle. In 1956 his seventieth birthday was
celebrated, and in 1961 he made another trip to Israel. He died in New York.

Thursday, 26 January 2017

He was born in Gut-Olkhovo, Pskov
district, Greater Russia, which his father, a flax merchant, held in
lease. He studied with private tutors in
the community, later in a Russian elementary school in the city. At age eleven or twelve, he left home and
lived in Odessa and later in Vitebsk. He
worked for a time as a teacher in Nevel (Vitebsk district). In 1913 he entered military service in Revel
(later in Estonia). In late 1914 he fled
to the United States, settled in Philadelphia, was a peddler of lamps, and
worked in sweatshops, shipbuilding, and with locomotives. His literary work began in Russian, when he
was still shy of fifteen years of age.
He contributed poems and stories to the Russian newspapers: Odesskie novosti (Odessa news) and Birzhevievedomosti
(Stockbroker’s gazette), as well as in the journal Solntse rossii (Sunny Russia), among other serials. He began publishing stories in Yiddish at the
end of 1916 in Idishe velt (Jewish
world) in Philadelphia, and later he wrote pieces for: Tog (Day), Fraye
arbeter-shtime (Free voice of labor), Morgn-zhurnal
(Morning journal), Der amerikaner
(The American), and Morgn-frayhayt
(Morning freedom)—in New York; Idisher kuryer
(Jewish courier) in Chicago; Keneder
odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Idishe
shtime (Jewish voice) in California); and in the journals: In zikh (Introspective), Der tsvayg (The branch), Baym fayer (At the fire), Ineynem (Altogether), Kultur (Culture), Oyfkum (Arise), Dos vort
(The word), Der hamer (The hammer), Signal (Signal), Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture), and Zamlungen (Collections), among others. Over the course of forty years, he wrote
stories, essays, critical treatments of both Jewish and Gentile writers and
their work, and articles about pedagogy.
He worked for many years as a teacher in New York schools of the Sholem-aleykhem
folk-institut (Sholem Aleichem Institute).
In the 1940s he carried out experiments and later excelled as a wood sculptor. His books include: Shvere himlen, noveln (Difficult skies, stories) (New York, 1923),
320 pp.; In frume shoen, minyaturn
(In pious times, miniatures) (New York, 1925), 192 pp.; Der mentsh, dertseylungen (The man, stories) (New York, 1929), 329
pp.; Di submarin z-1 (Submarine Z-1)
(New York, 1932), 230 pp.; In klem fun
tsayt, dertseylungen (In the throes of time, stories) (New York: IKUF,
1958), 316 pp.; Literarishe eseyen
(Literary essays) (New York: IKUF, 1960), 333 pp.; Krizis, roman (Crisis, a novel) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1963), 350
pp.; Letste shriftn (Latest writings)
(Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1966), 165 pp.
Particular attention was drawn by his novel Di submarin z-1, which was new both in its theme and in its
terminology. In his other fictional
work, one senses courage in his depiction of figures.

He was born in Plotsk (Płock), Poland. He studied in a Jewish public school and high
school. In 1947 he emigrated to Paris
and in 1953 to the United States. Over
the years 1935-1938, he was a correspondent for Moment (Moment) in Warsaw.
In 1937 he published and edited the weekly newspaper Plotsker lebn (Płock life). He also wrote for Algemeyne zhurnal (General journal) in New York. Among his pen names: Yisroel-Gershon, Gershon
Batsh, and G. Plotsker.

He was born in Plotsk (Płock), Poland. He studied in religious elementary school,
yeshivas, and on his own secular subjects and foreign languages. He was active in “Haḥaluts” (Pioneer) and in “Haḥaluts hatsair” (The young
pioneer). He began writing with an
nessay in Hatsfira (The siren) in
Warsaw (1928). He was a contributor and
member of the editorial board (together with Dovid Gold and Sh. Grinshpan,
among others) of Plotsker lebn
(Plotsk life) in 1937. He later moved to
Warsaw, and in early 1938 became an internal contributor to Moment (Moment) and Radyo (Radio), in which he published (also using the pen name Z.
Khavitsh), aside from theater and film reviews, also articles, reportage
pieces, and translations from French, English, and Polish fiction. In September 1939, in besieged and burning
Warsaw, he was among the editorial group (with Z. Zak, B. Khilinovitsh, B.
Mark, and others) that brought out the final issues of Moment. He was the last secretary
of the Jewish journalists’ union in the Warsaw Ghetto. He died of hunger.

He was born in Torne (Tarnów),
western Galicia. Until 1923 he was
active in the Labor Zionist party, and later he worked with the general Zionist
movement. He was Zionist representative
in the city council and (1938-1939) the head of the Jewish community council in
Torne. When the Germans entered the
city, he fled to Russia, returning to Poland in 1946. He later lived for a time in Paris and from
1948 in Israel. His writing activities
began with Arbeter-tsaytung (Workers’
newspaper) in Warsaw, to which he contributed over the years 1919-1921. Then, after the split among the Labor
Zionists in Poland, he founded and edited Dos
arbeter-vort (The worker’s word) in Cracow in 1921. He was later lead contributor and editor of
the Polish weekly newspaper Tygodnik żydowski (Jewish weekly) and its Yiddish
supplement Yudish vokhnblat (Jewish
weekly newspaper) in Torne (1928-1939).
He also placed work in the Zionist daily Nowy Dziennik (New daily) in Cracow (1931-1939). He edited the jubilee volume (in Polish)
commemorating fifty years of Zionism in Torne; and the Yiddish memorial volume,
Torne, kiem un khurbn fun a yidisher
shtot (Tarnów, the existence and destruction of a Jewish city) (Tel Aviv,
1954), 928 pp., for which he wrote six long works concerning various aspects of
the lives of Jews in Torne. In Israel he
lived in Tel Aviv.

Wednesday, 25 January 2017

He was born in Ruzhin, Kiev
district, Ukraine. He studied in
religious elementary school and in a small synagogue study hall. At age thirteen he had to go to work to help his
family. Early in the day he would read
books in Hebrew and Yiddish, and he wrote poetry and stories in both
languages. At age nineteen he turned to
secular subjects, became an external student, and in 1903 set out to pursue his
studies in Switzerland, but he got stuck in Chortkov (Chortkiv), eastern
Galicia, where he founded one of the first Hebrew-taught-in-Hebrew schools in
Galicia. Fortuitously, he met Leyzer
Rokeach, the editor of the weekly Der
veker (The alarm) in Buczacz, and in it he published several poems and a
story. He also published a Hebrew story
in Rokeach’s monthly Hayarden (The
garden). From that point, he published
stories and articles in: Lemberger
togblat (Lemberg daily newspaper) and Der
yudisher arbayter (The Jewish laborer) in Lemberg; Der tog (The day) in Cracow; Der
id (The Jew); Snunit (Swallow),
edited by G. Shofman; and Haolam (The
world); among others. In 1910 he
published the Hebrew-language monthly Tsafririm
(Zephyrs)—only one issue appeared. In
1911 the publishing house of Hateḥiya
(Revival) in Warsaw brought out a collection of his stories and images in
Hebrew under the title Pesiya rishona
(First step). He was interned during WWI
in Stanislavov as a Russian citizen. He
later lived in the provincial town of Bili (Biel?) in Switzerland. No further information has been forthcoming
about him.

She was born in the village of
Bartkova Rudniya, Ukraine, the sister of the poet Dovid Hofshteyn. Their father, an employee in the timber
business, had settled the family in the late 1890s in Volhynia. On her mother’s side, she descended from the
well-known Berdichev folk musician Pedatsur Kholodenko. In 1928 she was a student in the faculty of
physics and mathematics at the first state university in Moscow. She worked on scientific expeditions to the
north, which later was reflected in her creative work. She debuted in print with poetry in the
literary and artistic monthly Shtrom
(Current) (Moscow) 3 (1922). Her poetic
voice soon found a distinctive place in the world of Soviet poetry. Her first collection of poems was entitled Lebn (Life) (Kiev: Ukrainian state
publishers for national minorities, 1937), 62 pp.; the second collection was Lider (Poems) (Kiev: Ukrainian state
publishers for national minorities, 1940), 119 pp. She later contributed to the Kiev almanac Ukraine (Ukraine) and other Soviet
Yiddish periodicals. She also wrote
stories, and five of them appeared in 1940 in book form under the title Gantsfri (Completely free) (Moscow: Der
Emes), 40 pp. Also, a portion of his
poetry appeared as a book entitled Undzer
kraft (Our strength) (Moscow: Der Emes, 1947), 128 pp. This volume of poetry had five sections: 1.
“Undzer kraft”—“I did not know until now of my strength, / I cannot now weight
or measure it, / It has been tested on every grid, / With every struggle I feel
it getting steadier”; 2. “Vander” (Migrating); 3. “Gevikst” (Waxed); 4. “Erd”
(Earth); 5. “Lebn” (Life). She later
published: Dos vort (The word)
(Moscow: Sovetski pisatel, 1974), 163 pp.
His work was represented as well in: Tsum zig (To victory)
(Moscow, 1944); and the poetry collection Yugnt
(Youth) (Kharkov, 1922). One senses the
feelings of a woman and a mother in her poetry.
She suffered greatly over the years.
The death of her brother, who was for her a continual support and a
consolation throughout her life, was a personal tragedy. It was exacerbated by the fact that she could
in no way express her feelings publicly—in written or oral form. After her death there was discovered in the
drawer of her writing table poems of great pain in which she expressed her
feelings. She died in Moscow.

He was born in Manzir, Romania. He assisted his father in his blacksmith
shop. He was an autodidact. Haim Nachman Bialik saw his notebooks of
poetry in Odessa and offered him strong encouragement. He settled in Bender and opened a “cheder
metukan” (improved religious elementary school) there. After WWII he was arrested by the Soviets for
“Zionist activities” and dispatched to the Vorkuta labor camp where he
died. He wrote numerous poems, but published
few, in the daily newspaper Unzer tsayt
(Our time) in Kishinev (1922-1938) and in other Yiddish literary collections.

He was born in Kishinev,
Bessarabia. He studied in religious
primary school and public school, and he later went to work in a print
shop. Between the two world wars, he
worked in Kishinev as a typesetter in a publishing house of Yiddish literary works. He himself wrote poetry and stories which he
published in the Yiddish press in Romania.
In book form he published: Ershte vundn dertseylung (First wounds, a story)
(Kishinev, 1921), 30 pp.; A knip
in bak (A pinch on the cheek), humorous poetry and sketches which were
performed in Yiddish theatrical revues (Bucharest, 1934), 54 pp.; Finstere vinklen (Dark corners), stories
from Jewish working life in Bessarabia and Romania (Bucharest, 1935), 64
pp. “He would stand all day long over
the box of type,” wrote Shloyme Bikl, “and put the letters in order, but every
free hour that he had he would turn his attention to write his innovative
poetry and stories—on the one hand, they [the poems] were full of humor and
satire, while on the other the stories on the whole looked at dark side of life
under the Romanian authorities.” He also
translated from Russian Nikolai Anov’s Dnyeperboy
(Dnieper boy) (Moscow, 1933), 55 pp.
During the years of the Nazi occupation in Romania, he was active in the
underground anti-Nazi movement. In 1976
he moved to Israel. From time to time he
published articles and satires in: Unzer
tsayt (Our time) in Kishinev; Di vokh
(The week) and Inzl (Island) in
Bucharest; Oyfgang (Arise) in Sighet-Marmației; and Letste
nayes (Latest news) in Tel Aviv. Later
work includes: Fun dor tsu dor,
nokhmilkhome-roman un dos bilbl af yidishe doktoyrim (From generation to
generation, a postwar novel and the false accusations against the Jewish doctors)
(Kiryat Ata, 1978), 228 pp., Hebrew translation (1981); Satirishe lider (Satirical poems) (Kiryat Ata, 1978), 28 pp. The last two of these he wrote under the pen
name: Moyshe Ben Aba-Zis.